Sunday, July 17, 2005

Blair Says 'Evil Ideology' Must Be Faced Directly

These are excerpts from a July 16 speech made by Tony Blair- In a major speech drawing battle lines for the global response to terrorism, he said Saturday that its "evil ideology" could only be beaten by confronting its "symptoms and causes, head-on, without compromise or delusion."

". . .What we are confronting here is an evil ideology. It is not a clash of civilizations - all civilized people, Muslim or other, feel revulsion at it. But it is a global struggle and it is a battle of ideas, hearts and minds, both within Islam and outside it.

"This is the battle that must be won, a battle not just about the terrorist methods, but their views. Not just about their barbaric acts, but their barbaric ideas. Not only what they do, but what they think and the thinking they would impose on others."

"If it is Iraq that motivates them, why is the same ideology killing Iraqis by terror in defiance of an elected Iraqi government?"

"What was Sept. 11 the reprisal for? Why even after the first Madrid bomb and the election of a new Spanish government were they planning another atrocity when caught? Why, if it is the cause of Muslims that concerns them do they kill so many with such callous indifference?"

"Their cause is not founded on an injustice. It is founded on a belief, one whose fanaticism is such it can't be moderated. It can't be remedied. It has to be stood up to."

From Bill: Cool, eh? here's an Englishman who I would vote for (if I lived in the United Kingdom, of course).